Lafayette Ambassador closing two Lehigh Valley bank branches

Lafayette Ambassador Bank has notified customers that it will be closing two Lehigh Valley branches effective early next year, including this one at Butler Street and Freemansburg Avenue in Wilson. That will reduce the number of area Lafayette Ambassador branches to 19. (Anthony Salamone / THE MORNING CALL)

Lafayette Ambassador Bank is trimming two of its Lehigh Valley branches in late February, a move attributed to customer banking habits.

Stacey A. Karshin, spokeswoman for Lafayette Ambassador-owner Fulton Financial Corp., said offices at 1800 Butler St. in Wilson and 317 E. Landis St. in Coopersburg will close Feb. 22

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“Primarily, these decisions are based on our evaluation of changing customer banking patterns,” Karshin said last week.

Karshin said the bank also factored in the decision the proximity of neighboring bank branches. The Wilson branch, for example, is within 2½ miles to five branches — two in Easton, two in Palmer Township and one in Forks Township.

The bank also shuttered a branch Nov. 30 at 3397 Bath Pike (Route 512) in Hanover Township, Northampton County, for similar reasons, Karshin said. Once the two additional offices close next year, Lafayette Ambassador will have 18 in the region. Lafayette Ambassador ranks fourth in the number of branches and deposits in the Lehigh Valley, according to the latest Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. market report.

Lafayette Ambassador also opened a new branch last year at 1928 Hamilton St. in Allentown, replacing a branch on 19th Street.

At the Wilson branch, bank officials in 2010 installed a new audio-video system to enhance security at the branch, which had seen three robberies earlier that year. Customers who enter the Butler Street branch communicate with tellers much like they do at the bank’s drive-up window, with cash and other items exchanged through a vacuum air tube.

Karshin said the bank’s human resources department will help an unspecified number of employees affected by the closings to identify other job opportunities within the company. The bank notified customers last month about the closings.

Lancaster-based Fulton Financial acquired Lafayette Ambassador Bank in 1987 when it was known as Lafayette Trust Bank and based in Easton. Today, Lafayette Ambassador is headquartered at City Line and Schoenersville roads in Bethlehem.